Posts Tagged ‘louisiana’

A fellow named Jeff left a comment on an earlier post of mine, regarding some actions taken by Barbara Forrest of the National Center for Science Education to counter a creationist Trojan Horse bill in Louisiana. (The bill made it into law, as the reader may recall. We’re still waiting for the hammer of the courts to fall upon that one.)

Jeff’s comment was completely unrelated to that post. Instead, it was a self-styled “critique” of a speech Forrest apparently gave at a Southern Methodist Church. In the interest of promoting good science, and because I have little better to do, I have deleted Jeff’s comment and reproduced it here. I have attempted to counter his specious and often ludicrous arguments with some semblance of objective rationality.

Please read this excellent blog post on the Louisiana academic freedom fiasco. I think it sums up all the issues nicely.

It’s starting to seem to me that the only light at the end of this tunnel is the courts. As soon as some witless teacher uses the law (assuming it becomes so, and it seems likely) as a pretext to teach intelligent design, the courts will swat the school down like a housefly on a birthday cake. Sure, Louisiana will be humiliated and the school district will be out hundreds of thousands of dollars, but science education in the state will finally be safe.

Gov. Jindal, of course, is the governor of the fair state of Louisiana, which is currently poised to explode in a barrage of litigation and international ridicule because of this bill. A campaign is underway to petition Gov. Jindal to veto the bill, but that outcome seems unlikely, as pointed out by a pointed and hilarious post at a blog called Rational Soapbox.

I won’t attempt to recreate the funny here. Follow the link, and laugh heartily, even as your faith in humanity dissolves.

SB 733, the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act, has cleared both houses of the state legislature and is on its way to Governor Jindal’s desk. If he signs it, it will become law. If it becomes law, some witless science teacher will present ID as a legitimate theory, the school district will be sued, and millions of dollars will be thrown into the judicial toilet. It’s hard to imagine a worse outcome for public science education.

Thankfully, the Louisiana Coalition for Science hasn’t given up. Their website now bears a press release enumerating their objections to the bill, and information on how to contact Bobby Jindal and make clear your concerns. If enough people e-mail him, he just might veto the bill and save his state the already impending embarassment, ridicule, and litigation. It seems like a long shot to me, but it wouldn’t hurt to try. I’ve already done so.

Please, gentle reader, add your voice to the tumult. The forces of anti-science thrive on our silence, but they will wither when we raise our voices against them.